PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday linked Lugait, Misamis Oriental Mayor Willie Lim along with former Iligan City congressman Vicente Belmonte and Mayor Lawrence Cruz in the illegal drug trade.
Duterte identified the mayor as Bicol police reported finding P100 million worth of cocaine floating in waters off Tiwi, Albay.
Lim was the third town mayor to be named by the President after Cebu town Mayor Vicente Loot and Cruz. Another local official, slain Albuera town mayor Rolando Espinosa, was named by the police.
The politicians were tagged by the President during the awarding of the 2016 Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organization Overseas at Malacanang Palace.
Duterte named the three as he again showed the final drug list composed of few barangay captains, mayors, governors and few congressmen.
“This is the drug industry in the Philippines. Almost all of the barangay captains, a few senators who played and she was glorified with an award in Washington D.C.,” President Duterte said, referring to Senator Leila de Lima.
De Lima recently received award as one of the 100 Leading Global Thinkers for 2016 in Washington DC amid accusations that she opened the portals of government to narcopolitics based on the testimonies of high-profile inmates, prison guards, agents and her security aides in the House of Representatives inquiry into the proliferation of illegal drugs inside the New Bilibid Prison when she was justice secretary.
Duterte mentioned again the name of retired police general Vicente Loot who earlier, was tagged by the President as one of the five generals linked to illegal drugs.
“This is my problem. Maybe it will take my life or my entire to solve it (illegal drugs). That is why we have to take care of our generation,” Duterte said.
Meanwhile, the anti-drug campaign in Bicol got another boost after local fishermen turned over to the police 18 bricks of cocaine they found floating 100 meters off the shores of Tiwi town in Albay on Sunday night.
Bicol regional police director Supt. Melvin Buenafe said each of the cocaine bricks found in waters off Barangay Sogod, Tiwi weighed 1 kilogram each and that the 18 kilos of cocaine bricks could cost up to P100 million.
Senior Insp. Jan King Calipay, Tiwi town police chief, said two fishermen while on board a motorized banca found floating offshore a net full of “brick-like items wrapped with brown packaging tape.”
He said the two fishermen, Manuel Comota and Razel Bragais, informed Teresita Cericos, barangay captain of Sogod, about the package and immediately informed the MPO about it.
Buenafe thanked the fishermen and Cericos for their “courage in responding to the Philippine National Police’s campaign against illegal drugs.”
He encouraged the public to continue supporting the Philippine National Police in its anti-drug campaign.
Calipay said the recovered cocaine bricks were submitted to the PNP crime lab for further testing.